The longest days and the longest Psalm...

As I said yesterday, I have experienced some MAJOR changes in my life recently. You know, the kind of changes that rock you to the core. The kind of changes that make you cry until your eyes are swollen and you have no more tears. The kind of changes that leave you feeling rejected, alone and worthless... well... that sums up the changes that have taken place in my life...

And the worst part of it all... there was a time when I could not distinguish between the Lord's voice and the voice of evil... I cried out, and was told by my beloved mentor to keep crying out until He answered... so that is just what I did... I cried and cried and cried some more. Not only did I cry, I yelled, I swore, I stomped around the house and was just a mess...

But, finally, HE spoke... and this time, I KNEW it was HIM and only HIM. I opened His word and found just what I had longed for, cried out for, begged for and needed.

Psalm 119 - yep, the words within this Psalm, where just what I craved to hear from my Sweet Jesus... so over the next few days, I am going to share this journey with you, and pray He speaks to you in a way that draws you to His feet, because trust me, it is the BEST place to be.

So here are a little facts about the LONGEST Psalm ...

1. There are 176 verses within this Psalm.

2. The 176 verses are broken up into 22 carefully constructed sections.

3. Each one of the 22 constructed sections correspond with a different letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And, each verse within the sections beings with the letter of it's section. Each section is made up of 8 verses.

You see, this kind of repetition was common in the Hebrew culture. People did not have copies of the scriptures so they relied on memorization of His word and passed it along orally. The structure of this Psalm allowed for easy memorization.

Don't worry, the fabulousness does not end there... through out the 176 verses there are 8 different words used that mean "God's Word"... those 8 words are...

1. Testimonies (this is used 19 times)

2. Precepts (this is used 20 times)

3. Statutes (This is used 19 times)

4. Commandments (this is used 22 times)

5. Judgments (this is used 22 times)

6. Word (this is used 22 times)

7. Words/Sayings/Promised (these are used 20 times)

8. Law (this is used 24 times) - funny thing about the word "law", in Hebrew, it means teachings or instructions...

So... now that we know all the fun facts about this Psalm... tomorrow we are going to dive right into the Word... are you ready?